Kylo Ren's ultimate goal may be to live up to Darth Vader's legacy, but he's not yet his grandfather -- at least, according to Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson.

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"Writing Kylo Ren is just so much fun," Johnson said in an interview with Empire. "Star Wars boils down to the transition from adolescence into adulthood. That's the heart of these films and Rey is most obviously the one that hangs on. But it's also Kylo. In the originals you project entirely onto Luke, while Vader is the scary other — he's the minotaur. The fascinating thing about Kylo and Rey is that they're two sides of something. We can all relate to Kylo: to that anger of being in the turmoil of adolescence and figuring out who he's going to be as a man; dealing with anger and wanting to separate from his family. He's not Vader — at least, he's not Vader yet — and that's something I really wanted to get into."

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At the end of The Force Awakens, Supreme Leader Snoke calls Kylo back to complete his training. Taken in conjunction with Johnson's statements, there's some indication that the young Sith Apprentice will continue farther down his dark path, though whether he is redeemed in the end like his grandfather remains a mystery.

Debuting in theaters on December 15, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a production of Lucasfilm directed by Rian Johnson and starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Andy Serkis, Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran.